When I am 56, I want to be like Exene Cervenka, I want to be able to freely scream ‘Fuck them’ several times to a large crowd while talking about those who have announced the end of the world on December 21st 2012… yeah, dream on! The legendary punk band X was playing at the Henry Fonda theater on doomed day, and Exene told us that, when she learned about the date of the show, she exclaimed ‘December 21st? Are you fucking kidding me?’
But nobody had believed the rumor, or may be everyone wanted to die while listening to 'This New World', since the theater was packed with a very enthusiastic crowd of old-school ageing punk moms and dads and youngsters decided to crowd surfing the whole night. The audience was rowdy as expected, the energy was high and the songs mostly coming from X's early 80s albums, such as ‘Los Angeles’, ‘Wild Gift’, ‘Under the Big Black Sun’, and ‘More Fun in the New World’… and I was thinking that it must be very gratifying for musicians in their late 50s to see that 30-year-old songs still resonate so much into young kids’ minds. True! X's punk anthems are still furious, and Cervenka-Doe's vocal harmonies still work like they did since the beginning of the band. I have seen John Doe solo a few times, and although the Echo was really packed last time he played there, it was just the Echo and this Friday show was a reminder how well Doe and Cervenka still function as a couple.
John Doe looked damn elegant with a sunny western shirt, a hat and a leather vest that he didn't keep for long, whereas Exene was more casual with a ‘Defend New Orleans’ t-shirt and a hooded sweatshirt. 2012 was the 35th anniversary of the band and they still played these songs created decades ago, with the same conviction and not an ounce of nostalgia. Recently, 1980 X’s album ‘Los Angeles’ was voted second greatest LA punk album of all time (just behind Black Flag’s ‘Damaged’) by the LA Weekly, and there is a reason for this, it embodies youth punk rage at its LA roots with Exene’s raising vocals and an urgency rarely repeated. A large X was in the stage background, it was not on fire like on their debut album’s cover, but the charging energy the quartet managed to bring was blazing the stage all the same.
Exene, who was sometimes shaking her head and making large gestures like a disarticulated doll, said she didn’t want to interrupt the energy and song flow by speaking, but she did speak a few times, with the angry tone of a queen of punk, using a lot of ‘fuck/fucking’ so that nobody could have noticed any energy interruption. A beer in her right hand, she said she wanted to see all the people, asking to turn the lights on the crowd, and exclaiming big inspiring sentences such as ‘We are here, we are not gonna be enslaved… No violence no BS, It’s a love, earth, life celebration!’ Meanwhile, her ex-husband was showing more restrained manners, grinning from start to finish, and seemingly having an excellent time, while guitarist Billy Zoom was playing with an imperturbable and detached smile on his face.
Surviving so long and becoming a classic in the punk rock history isn’t easy, but the show proved that their mixture of rock, country, rockabilly – they even covered a Jerry Lee Lewis’ song and I didn’t even notice! – wrapped by an intense delivery and a punk attitude is just this,… a series of classic punk anthems written by the founders of LA-all-things-punk, which, last Friday night, had become happy sing-along songs.
Setlist
Your Phone's Off The Hook, But You're Not
Sugarlight
Beyond And Back
Poor Girl
Some Other Time
In This House That I Call Home
We're Desperate
The Have Nots
I'm Coming Over
Sex and Dying in High Society
Los Angeles
The World's A Mess, It's In My Kiss
The Unheard Music
The Hungry Wolf
Year 1
It’s Who You Know
The New World
Breathless (Jerry Lee Lewis cover)
Nausea
Motel Room In My Bed
Johnny Hit and Run Paulene
Soul Kitchen (The Doors cover)
Encore
The Once Over Twice
Adult Books ? (on the setlist but not sung?)
White Girl (not on setlist but sung?)
Because I Do
Devil Doll (on the setlist but not sung?)